First Impressions: Ruger American Pistol

Sharp Shooting Indoor Range & Gun Shop in Spokane got a handful of Ruger’s newest firearm, the American Pistol, in stock and immediately added one to its extensive rental counter. Although one of TTAG’s Texas-based writers is putting an American Pistol through the full review process, I figured I may as well snag this one and jump straight into the Fun Shoot competition stage. Initial impressions follow. . .

The grip circumference, shape, and angle are all excellent. Ideal, really. I’m a big fan of how it feels in the hand, and I love that the frame allows for and encourages a high grip to compliment the pistol’s relatively low bore axis. Everything about the grip gives the feeling of full control over the pistol. I could learn to really drive this thing.

Ruger’s SR9 series has always been right up at the top of my list for semi-auto handgun recommendations for women or other petite folks due to the small grip circumference, easy-to-rack slide, and soft recoil. The American Pistol hits on all of those points as well, but the swappable backstraps give it a leg up on accommodating hands of all sizes from from carny to sasquatch.

Arex REX Zero 1 over Ruger American Pistol

The trigger pull is clean and smooth, and the break is crisp. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of take-up (slack) and, worse, you’re forced to relive it after every single shot. Normally “riding the reset” can save you from this, but the American Pistol’s trigger must move forward a lot farther than I’d like before it resets, and most of that travel sends it ahead of the sear engagement and deep into take-up zone.

While I’d definitely get used to the trigger travel with just a few more mags through the gun, I did short-stroke it once on each of my two runs through the Fun Shoot stage.

Wrapping up my trigger nitpicks, the trigger safety blade pivots too far — behind the face of the trigger — the result is the trigger face feels like it has a skeletonized notch cut into it with a sharp edge on either side. It’s not particularly comfortable.

Speaking of skeletonized, the “feed strip” has its middle removed. I’m not sure I’ve seen that before. Just a random note.

Also on the random notes front, the fire control group seems more complicated than I would have expected. It all looks very stout and nicely-machined, but KISS-compliant it ain’t.

Taking my very first shots with this pistol on a timed and scored competition-style stage may not have been the smartest choice, but I still shot well, if a bit slow. The sights weren’t particularly easy for me to acquire, which, combined with the longer-than-I’m-used-to trigger travel, slowed me down. The front blade just doesn’t stand out well enough for me against the rear. Still, that second run in the video at top was too accurate…I should have picked up the pace. With modified or different sights and a little trigger work, I could see this gun quickly becoming one of my favorites.

Overall, if the Ruger American Pistol proves reliable — and so far this example apparently hasn’t seen a single stoppage — as well as durable, it’s going to be a big hit. Especially at an MSRP of $549 and a street price about $100 less.

The P95 sitting on my porch counter is stone cold reliable. Big, blocky, crappy double action trigger, but stone cold reliable. Paid 329.00 for it brand new and worth the price. But if Ruger thinks big blocky and crummy triggers are worth Glock money they need a new product development manager.

I wouldn’t describe it that way. It’s big because it’s a full-size gun, which it’s supposed to be. It’s far from bulky though. The grip is amazing and the pistol handles like a racecar. The trigger is not bad. It isn’t perfect but it’s way above average for striker-fired pistol triggers. I’d take it over many of its competitors. If that take-up didn’t have to be repeated on every shot it would be up there probably just slightly behind the PPQ and VP9 as one of the very nicest striker-fired triggers on the market, I think. I’ve already seen teasers photos from an aftermarket company with its own replacement trigger for this thing. That and sights and this could be a new go-to pistol for me for sure.

That was going to be my question. Any semblance of a review should tell us what kind of action the gun has. I have not heard of a SAO semiauto being introduced in a long time. You know, like a 1911 or a Browning HiPower. So is this one, or is it DA/SA like a Sig, DAO, what? I don’t see a safety, probably indicating DA/SA or DAO. Since we have all the complaint about trigger reset, sounds like DAO is out, leaving DA/SA like a Sig. How’s my math? Here we don’t even have mag capacity! Hell, I somehow missed the caliber!

Did you have any complaints about your thumb knuckle being hit due to the overall shape of the gun? I’ve seen a few other impressions where that was pointed out, I wonder if it’s just the size of one’s hands.

Being hit by what? I didn’t notice anything like that, but to be fair I only put 40 rounds through the thing. I’m actually buying one in an hour or so and will be shooting it all day tomorrow, so I’ll keep that in mind…

Sounds like from your review thou the trigger being “good” or “not that bad” just quite doesnt measure up to some of the other fabulous striker fired triggers out now. Over the past several years its become “all about the trigger” for these new striker fired guns. And any new gun that falls even a little short is gonna get dinged in the reviews. Its gotta have a glass smooth take up, a nice wall you can feel, a crisp, clean break and a very short, audible reset. If it doesnt, it unfortunately just falls short of the others. Is this a fair assessment from your review???

I’d also agree on the importance of the trigger. Over the last 3+ years of writing for TTAG and having more and more and more guns come through my hands, the trigger pull quality has continued to mean more and more to me. For instance, most of the comments on the ELF AK-47 trigger (http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2015/12/jeremy-s/gear-review-elftmann-tactical-ak-trigger/) revolved around the absurdity of putting a $295 trigger into a dang AK. I understand that, yeah, but it’s such an important interface with the firearm and a clean, crisp trigger can increase shooting enjoyment incredibly… so it’s often worth the cost of entry.

Sounds also like the trigger blade could really start to nag a shooter after extended range use…….just by the sound of it having a “gap” in the middle by overextending could really start to bug the trigger finger.

I probably need to scale it back a bit, as I’m admittedly a trigger snob. This is a very good trigger overall. Much better than most striker-fired guns on the market. The smoothness and clean, crisp break put a Glock to shame. It also has a solid, positive overtravel stop (an actual lump molded into the bottom of the trigger guard). It isn’t perfect, but few are.

As for the sights, it’s a 3-dot arrangement and I just wasn’t picking up the front very quickly or keeping track of it very easily. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s a bit too wide and/or the rear notch is a bit too narrow and I wanted more light in there, or if it’s short or the dot is too small or what. Honestly I didn’t really look at them other than during shooting haha. I’m sure it’s something I’d get used to.

These two nitpicks about the trigger reset and the sights are just that; minor nitpicks. So far I think it’s going to be a really freaking excellent gun if it proves to be reliable/durable.

On another note, I’m headed out in a few minutes to go purchase one of the ones in stock at Sharp Shooting. I’ll be spending most of the day out in the woods with it tomorrow.

So when is ruger coming out with the tactical threaded barrel .45 and 9mm. I’ve heard no rumors but this would really excite me. I actually can’t see that not doing well with all the new suppressor owners out there. Taller sights would be nice on that model too.

I agree. My prediction is it will have a nice little run with initial sales, but if the review is accurate and correct, fall way off just simply because the striker fired market has such great triggers on some guns now such as PPQ, VP9 or P320. Now days it seems to be all about the triggers on striker fired guns and who can do better. And according to this its not quite on par with the others. A shame. Cause its a nice new innovative design. But if the trigger lags, no real reason at all to pick it over the others, except for the fact its 100% US made. Which most people could care less about. I for one have found that German, Italian, Swiss, ect. made guns are far more superior to US made ones in quality anyway, when it comes to “production” guns

Ruger says the new American pistol employs a pre-tensioned striker that is fully cocked by the slide that is not cocked in any way by the trigger. If I understand this correctly, it means the pistol is is one of the rare bird SAO striker fired pistols w/o an external safety, similar to the Canik TP9SA. This seems less than ideal for carry or nightstand duty with a loaded chamber. The manual even recommends unloading between shooting, although that could just be the legal team’s work. I have ran some google searches, but haven’t found anyone discussing the pistol as SAO. Since Ruger is not advertising it as an SAO I am hoping that I am missing something. Any ideas?

That terminology (SAO, etc) is rarely ever applied to striker-fired guns anyway. I do believe this striker is fully cocked by the slide cycling, though, and the trigger’s sole function is releasing it (like a PPQ and VP9). I haven’t examined the internals, but I’d put money on this due to how short and crisp the trigger pull is once you’re actually up against the sear. The pre-travel / take-up / slack is extremely light in pull weight and I assume basically that whole distance is used to clear a firing pin block (striker block) out of the way ahead of the striker’s release.

Thanks Jeremy, this helps. I did not know that the PPQ and VP9 were set up like this. I had assumed their triggers were so good because they had found a better way to accomplish the Glock-style ‘double-action’ trigger.

Ideal night stand pistol? Now I know you must be joking. I could not think of a worse pistol on a night stand or any other gun of this type. Lets face cold hard facts getting up in the middle of the night half asleep still in the twilight zone because you heard a noise and attempting to grab a pistol that has no manual safety and is at full cock ready to go off is pure insanity. Just reaching out for it could result in snagging the trigger on something including your finger and set it off accidentally. I do not think any clear thinking person would ever try such a thing unless the chamber was empty.

Trigger’s better than those two. I obviously gave the impression that it’s a bad trigger and it isn’t. It would be a world class striker trigger if only the reset was shorter. Didn’t mean to imply that it’s worse in that regard than the competition, either, just that it’s this trigger’s main imperfection. It’s way, way better than the average striker-fired gun’s trigger though for sure. Top 20% of the market probably.

Jeremy, you shoot and review a lot of pistols. Great reviews, very honest and level headed, which is somewhat rare these days. Keep up the great work an I look forward to your full review. The take up on Glocks are long, but doable. Also, have you read or seen in an interview, the thoughts of “The Great One” Rob Leatham on riding trigger reset? Or Jerry Miculek. For the overwhelming majority of shooters, riding the reset is the slowest way to shoot a pistol. The fastest way to shoot a semi auto pistol is to release the trigger as fast as possible.

Good lord, the complaining in here is giving me a headache. It’s yet another choice for us consumers. If history has taught us anything, the redux version will correct any perceived problems, and after market triggers will soon be available. After a trigger job, this sucker will be as reliable as a 1911’s reputation at a price I can get behind. But then again, I’m prejudiced toward Ruger in all things. I’ve even forgiven old Bill for selling out to the Clintons back in the day.

Yeah, Ruger got the message about how lousy the trigger was on the LC9, and switched the pistol to a striker-fire because the first DAO hammer version had such a lousy trigger. I fired the original version and it was the worst trigger you can imagine. I haven’t fired the LC9s, but it could only be an improvement, and it shows that Ruger does listen to complaints.

With as much as we like to bitch and complain about all the options on the table available to us to choose from, “when” the tyranny finally drops the hammer and outlaws guns and ammo, it’s like they will be doing us a favor and some of the hard and dirty work for us by getting rid of all these undesirable and imperfect pieces. “When” all we have available to us are blunderbuss’s, single-shooters and zip-guns, we’re gonna remember how when during “the golden age”, all we seemed to do is bitch and myopically prostrated ourselves at the temple on the one Austrian god.

Well said. The fact of the matter is, whether fanboys of all stripes want to admit it or not, we’re living in a golden age of guns. There are good guns available at almost all price points, and most of those can be turned into great guns with not much effort. The baseline used to be “does it actually work more or less reliably”, but now reliability and decent accuracy are almost taken for granted, and we’re left to nit-pick things like how a $400 pistol doesn’t come with a match-grade trigger.

The trigger is going to be different from the SRs because it is a new setup, with a removable “chassis” like some Berettas and SIGs. That’s probably why it looks a little bulky to Jeremy.

The initial reviews vary quite a bit on the trigger and the sights. It will be interesting to see where those opinions shake out over the next few months.

Can’t see myself getting one, as I prefer the compact configurations, but if it turns out to be something really interesting, then sure. Why not? I like having lots of choices on the menu, even if there are some things I never order.

Street price of $450 and all the sex appeal of a 2009 Toyota Camry. Guess if it shoots well then it is one more option on the market, can’t hurt I suppose. Just looks like the Ruger decision makers just sat down and said something to the effect of, “well I guess we should make a polymer striker fired pistol.” Was probably the worlds shortest meeting, just looks like they put in the least amount of effort from start to finish as possible to have a finished pistol. My money is safe for now though.

It’s worth noting that Dave at Guns America wrote “No two ways about it. As far as out-of-the-box stock triggers go, I’d rank this up there with the absolute best.” Jeff at GunBlast wrote “The trigger pull is dang-near perfect for such a pistol. Smooth, light, and with a short, positive reset.” Gil at American Rifleman said “Thanks to the light take-up and clean break, the trigger was smooth and comfortable to work.” There are plenty of other positive comments about the trigger in posted videos. None of that means that Jeremy’s observations aren’t dead-on, just that there are some differing opinions.

Hate to agree here, but Jeff likes every pistol that touches his hand. After a while you learn the biases of any particular website. TTAG hate cops. TFB isn’t the professional standard it thinks it is and Gunblast loves every gun it sees.

Trigger pull quality can certainly be a subjective thing. But don’t forget that TTAG has become popular for refusing to play ball and for telling it how it is. You’re probably aware that bridges have been burned with various manufacturers for writing honest reviews and daring to mention problems instead of burying them. The Ruger American Pistol review on here won’t be accompanied by full-page advertisements for the same pistol littering the magazine in which the “review” appears…

When I do a full review video, you can expect to see the trigger pull and reset close-up and done slowly. You’ll see the long reset and how it makes the shooter pull through all of the take-up on every shot. I’ll also do a trigger scan graph so it can be objectively compared to a couple other guns. Well, I’ll likely just put a factory Glock 17 on the trigger scan and overlay the two graphs.

The trigger is light, the reset is long. I don’t know what guns the other reviewers primarily shoot, but not many pistols I’ve shot require you to darn near fully release the trigger before it resets. The RAP does, at least my copy does.

That’s all behind the breech face so doesn’t touch the round being chambered. The next round in the mag is being pushed up against that though, and when the side cycles back the on-deck round will slide along that until it pops in front of the leading edge (which is the bottom of the breech face).

As great looking and fresh and innovative this gun is for Ruger, any striker fired gun in 2016 that doesnt have an amazing or at least equally as good trigger than some of the offerings now days is going to have a rough go getting off the ground and really shocking the market. The internet has made people much more informed than in years past. And word spreads quickly on guns now. It sounds to me that while the gun is a great offering from Ruger and an improvement on any semi auto they have produced in the past, the trigger and some little quirks lag behind some of the offering out there on the market. I think the PPQ’s, VP9’s and P320’s, just to name a few, have set the bar so high now on just how clean and crisp a striker fired trigger can be, any gun manufacturer that puts a gun out to compete directly with those type of triggers and actions and ends up falling a little short, word will spread and it will hurt the initial reviews and sales. Because all people are going to do is compare it to those and say its not as good. I commend Ruger for this gun. I’ve never been a fan of any of the semi autos they have put out in the past and this one seems to be a little different and more in tune with the look and style people are going for now. But if you cant get the trigger to be as good, at the very minimum, as the others it will be hard to somehow justify buying it over the others. The market is just so tough now with some of these new great striker fired pistols. Gonna be a tough sell for them for sure. Love Ruger thou…….and i still say for revolvers and rifles they are one of the very best!!!

You are right that in this day and age, there really is no excuse to not bring your A-game with the trigger. Think about it Glock has the “if you shoot one you have shot them all” consistency nailed, M&P sells their guns cheap enough to just buy an Apex kit, but Walther, Sig, HK, and FN all make lights out good triggers.

However, you are wrong on your second point. It isn’t going to have a tough time at all, it will sell by the thousands because it is a Ruger. thats what brand loyalty does.

The only thing I got from that video, is that if you run the sucker dry, the slide doesn’t hold back. That’s not gonna work for me in any way, shape, or form, especially in competition. Nope, that robs precious tenths, if not a whole second or more because first off, you go ‘huh?’, then you think ‘Oh duh, out’ then drop one, slam it home, and rack it again? No way Hose-B, I will be avoiding that shit like the plague. It’s a pretty good looking pistol otherwise, I like the plastic fantastics though.

I ride my thumbs high and ride my right thumb pushing down on top of the safety on my go-to pistol. It means I generally press on the slide catch with my right thumb on new guns. Just habit. If I shot this gun a little more I’d be riding my right thumb on top of the meat of my left thumb instead, and I wouldn’t interfere with the slide catch. At any rate, the gun is mechanically fine and this is shooter error that I do basically every time I switch to a new pistol before I slightly alter my grip.

Its going to be nearly impossible for any one to come up with a striker fired gun that can best the PPQ, VP9 or P320 on triggers. Each of them all have amazing and different triggers. Which one you like best depends on your taste. PPQ have the smoothest, crispest trigger of them all. VP9 has a little less take up, but not as crisp of a break. P320 has by far the shortest take up of all, but also the “heaviest” wall and break. All have insanely short resets. Like i said. All 3 have distinct and equally great triggers. Just going to come down to what you like best. But i dont see a company being able to come up with better triggers than these. Its almost impossible. Anything better would just be dangerous.

Everyone loves trashing on Ruger, it is an Internet hobby. I happen to carry a SR9c and it has been the most reliable of all my handguns (Glock 19, PPQ, Shield) and it carries really well. Better trigger than the Shield and Glock 19 IMO, but not the PPQ.

I am looking forward to shooting one of these. I have no need of another full size-ish pistol, but if they come out with a good carry option that is a noticeable improvement over the SR9c, I am interested.

Looks like a decent, competitive gun, but nothing revolutionary. I wonder if these trigger safeties are really necessary. People still finding ways to inadvertently stick things inside the trigger guard to light the gun off. Maybe we need revolutionary holster or combination gun and holster designs.

Hey I just went over to Gunblast and saw Jeff Quinns’ review-he liked even more than the R51! Perfect or close to it-there you go. Not really in the market for a full-size 9mm so maybe I’ll wait and see…

Good Lord ppl… Any idea how much scrolling was needed to get to the comment section? Glock vs Ruger… Blah blah blah. Both go bang when da boogah hook be on da bang switch. But IF Ruger wanted to sell more of these, let’s face it; they would if it were called the ‘Murican Pistol.

Trigger paddle safeties do make it meaningfully harder to have an ad if carrying in softish, smart carry type holsters.

Getting better than glock trigger crispness by doing the equivalent of shrouding the hammer of a safetyless 1911, isn’t really all that impressive. The whole ‘do as the experts (gamers) do’, is getting seriously close to full retard on this front. Glocks have good triggers. Too ‘good’ for regular joe/ponch knockabout carry, if anything. Now even Sig and HK seem to have abandoned the quest for close to glock practical speed/accuracy in a more slipup resistant package, for doubling down on one of the glock’s least desirable (at least from where I sit) traits.

I’ve put over 1k through my 9mm RAP since March. It’s been in snow water mud sand and other random gum up crap and shrugs it off. I’ve killed 4 porkipines a beaver and turkey with it so I’d say “combat” vetted. Cast bullets plated fmj tmj hollows +p +p+ nato spec subs it just keeps friggin working